Mar. 14, 2012

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Written by

John Glennon

The Tennessean

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Clyde Lee, an All-America center for Vanderbilt in the mid-1960s, doesn’t like the increased physicality of today’s game. “I couldn’t play this game right now,” he said. / George Walker IV / The Tennessean

Seven Tennessee legends

DICK BARNETTTennessee State (1956-59)Position: Guard NCAA Tournament: Barnett did not play in the NCAA Tournament because TSU (then Tennessee A&I) was then in the NAIA, but he led the Tigers to three straight NAIA championships in 1957-59 and was named championship MVP in 1958 and ’59. Career highlights: Barnett remains TSU’s leader in points, field goals and free throws, and is second in rebounds. A three-time NAIA All-American, he also played 14 seasons in the NBA, where he won two championships with the New York Knicks. Now: Founder and executive director of SportScope, a center for the study and research of athletes and sports in American society

CLYDE LEEVanderbilt (1963-66)Position: Center NCAA Tournament: In the 1965 NCAA Mideast Regional, Lee collected a game-high 24 points and game-high 15 rebounds in leading the Commodores past DePaul in overtime. He put up even bigger numbers in a two-point loss to Michigan: 28 points, 20 rebounds. Career highlights: Lee was a first-team All-American in 1966, made the NCAA All-Tournament team in 1965 and was a two-time SEC Player of the Year. He is the Commodores’ career rebounds leader and sixth all-time leading scorer and was the first Vanderbilt athlete to have his jersey retired. He played 11 years in the NBA. Now: Retired

MIKE JACKSONTennessee (1973-77)Position: Guard NCAA Tournament: Jackson and the Vols were knocked out in the 1976 and ’77 first rounds, falling to VMI and Syracuse. Career highlights: A three-year starter, Jackson played with two of the all-time great Vols — Bernard King and Ernie Grunfeld. Jackson was UT’s third-leading scorer his last three years, and in 1977 he earned second-team All-SEC honors as the Vols won the SEC title. Now: Regional manager for C.A.R.S. Protection Plus Inc., St. Joseph School middle school girls basketball coach

LONNIE THOMPSONMiddle Tennessee State (1983-85)Position: Guard/forward NCAA Tournament: In the first round in 1985, Thompson and MTSU lost 76-57 to a North Carolina team featuring future pros Brad Daugherty and Kenny Smith. Thompson led the Blue Raiders in points (20), rebounds (8) and assists (3). Career highlights: As a senior he averaged 13.4 points and 5.4 rebounds per game and shot almost 48 percent from the field. As a junior he averaged 6.4 rebounds. Now: Cumberland University head coach

BARRY BOOKERVanderbilt (1985-89)Position: Guard NCAA Tournament: In the 1988 NCAA Tournament, Vanderbilt beat Utah State and Pittsburgh, thanks in part to a combined 24 points from Booker. The Commodores then lost to Kansas despite his 22 points. In ’89, Notre Dame eliminated the Commodores in the first round as Booker scored 8 points. Career highlights: Booker has the best 3-point shooting percentage in school history, is sixth in 3-pointers made and was first-team All-SEC Tournament in 1989. Now: College basketball analyst on TV, relationship manager for Wells Fargo

DREW MADDUXVanderbilt (1994-98)Position: Guard NCAA Tournament: Xavier beat Maddux and the Commodores in a Midwest Regional first-round game in 1997. He played all 40 minutes of the 80-68 loss, posting 16 points, five steals and three assists. Career highlights: Maddux was first-team All-SEC in 1998 and is Vanderbilt’s seventh all-time leading scorer. He also ranks seventh in 3-pointers made. Now: Christ Presbyterian Academy head coach

BRIAN "PENNY" COLLINSBelmont (2002-06)Position: Guard NCAA Tournament: Collins guided the Bruins to their first NCAA Tournament berth in 2006, when they lost to UCLA 78-44. Collins had seven points, four rebounds, three assists and two steals. Career highlights: Finished as Belmont’s career leader in assists and steals, and was tied for first in free throw attempts. He had one of his best games in a win over Lipscomb as a senior, with 21 points, five rebounds, four assists and seven steals. Now: Cumberland University assistant coach

— John Glennon

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When Nashville first played host to NCAA Tournament games almost four decades ago, dunking the basketball was illegal, 3-point shots were nonexistent and the entire March Madness field consisted of 25 teams.

To say men’s college basketball has changed over the years would be a vast understatement.

Do the increased exposure, greater balance and more talented athletes mean it is automatically better in all respects than the game of generations past? Or do some frequently heard criticisms — more individualistic play, too much NBA influence and the erosion of fundamentals — mean that college basketball also has suffered as it has grown? It certainly has not from a media exposure or revenue standpoint, with more games being televised than ever before and more money being funneled to the schools.

Some were confident the product is better than ever, but almost all were concerned about factors they say have eaten away at the game for years and show no signs of abating.

Drew Maddux, an All-Southeastern Conference guard for Vanderbilt in the 1990s, likes the state of the game overall but sees some sinister issues beneath the surface.

“You can argue that college basketball has never been in as great as a shape that it’s in — when you look at it from a standpoint of athleticism, from physicality, from incoming freshmen participating and having a high level of success, to the level of experienced coaches that we’ve seen,” said Maddux, who is now the boys’ basketball coach at Christ Presbyterian Academy.

“That said, I can totally argue from the other standpoint and say college basketball has never faced more challenges. The players are much better, but I think that today’s game lacks total team cohesion in a collective philosophy. The collective commitment from teams has never been as poor as I can remember.”

Growing pains

The size and scope of men’s college basketball have increased dramatically over the decades.

In 1982, for instance, the NCAA listed 11,578 men’s basketball players participating at 741 colleges on the Division I, II and III levels.

By 2010, the number of players had risen by almost 47 percent to 17,008, and the number of schools with teams had increased to 1,038 — a jump of more than 40 percent.

“There’s a lot more opportunity for kids to have a dream,” said former University of Tennessee star Mike Jackson, who played alongside Volunteer greats Bernard King and Ernie Grunfeld in the 1970s. “There are naturally more opportunities for more kids to get exposed. They have more chances to get what they can out of (basketball).

“And when you talk about coaching staffs, back then you might have one coach and an assistant coach, but now you have seven people sitting with you on the bench.”

Then there’s the monumental growth of television coverage, which has resulted in a flood of college basketball available to watch on any given night. And yet, the increased media exposure could inadvertently be harming the game.

Video highlights emphasize the spectacular, and some believe that is detrimental to fundamentals.

“What’s hurt the game of basketball, to be honest with you, is ESPN,” said Lonnie Thompson, who played for Middle Tennessee State in the 1980s and is now head coach at Cumberland University in Lebanon. “What do they show on ESPN? For five seconds, they show somebody taking the three-pointer or somebody dunking. And the young kids grow up thinking, ‘This is what I have to do to be a good basketball player. I have to either dunk it or take a long three.’

“A lot of kids in this generation want to play the game like they play a video game. They want to hit a buzzer and jump over somebody. The game is not played that way. The game is still about passing the ball, catching the ball, shooting the ball and rebounding the ball.”

Bigger, stronger and faster

Increased physicality and athleticism are two of the biggest changes in college basketball over the past few decades, thanks largely to advances in training and nutrition.

Some former players argued that bigger, stronger, faster athletes banging into one another have altered the free-flowing beauty and overall quality of the game.

“The players aren’t any taller than they were 25 years ago, but they’re a lot heavier, a lot stronger and a lot more physical,” said Barry Booker, one of Vanderbilt’s top long-range shooters in the 1980s and currently a college basketball analyst. “I don’t think the physical play is a change for the good; there’s a lot more contact. I don’t think the game is nearly as fun to watch or to play.”

Said Clyde Lee, an All-America center for Vanderbilt in the mid-1960s: “The leaning, the shoving, the hand-checking and those kinds of things … I couldn’t play this game right now. I played at about 195 pounds. Today it would take at least 250 pounds to be so physical. It’s craziness. I enjoy following the women’s game more than the men’s because of that.”

Former Tennessee State player Dick Barnett, a star for the Tigers in the late 1950s, believes just the opposite is true.

Although athletes in his era may not have been as physically imposing as today’s players, that doesn’t mean the game was played with less contact or intensity.

“To me, the game has become less physical, no question about it,” said Barnett, the founder and executive director of SportScope, a New York City-based center for the study and research of athletes and sports in American society. “Particularly with those rule changes where you can hardly touch a player out on the floor, that type of thing. I really think the game has changed dramatically in that regard.”

As for athleticism, Maddux has a unique viewpoint on changes in the game: His grandfather and father preceded him as Vanderbilt players.

“We all go back and watch those classic games of the ’80s in the NBA, and you watch those guys playing and they almost look slow,” Maddux said. “It looks like they can’t jump as high and run as fast.”

Said Jackson: “The game is so much faster now than it used to be. The players are a lot more athletic and a lot more prepared.”

One and done

One common lament is that player commitment to the team is not what it once was. Some players appear to be more focused on trying to improve their value in the eyes of professional scouts than on winning at the collegiate level.

“Back when I played college ball, nobody was thinking, ‘What do I need to do to raise my stock?’ ” Jackson said. “We were thinking about coming together as a team and doing whatever it took to win the next game and get to the championship to have a memorable season.”

In decades past, many of the most talented players stayed in school for three or four years. Teams were more cohesive because players weren’t constantly coming and going.

But the lure of the NBA’s big paychecks has become increasingly seductive, prompting more players to leave college early for a shot at the pros — whether that shot is realistic or not.

Ironically, the NBA, in seeking to keep high-school players from jumping straight to the professional ranks, may well have added to the flux in college levels starting in 2006. That’s when the league declared that pro prospects have to be at least 19 and one year out of high school before entering the draft. The rule has given rise to the so-called “one-and-done” generation — supremely talented players, many of whom look at college as a necessary one-year stopover before heading for the NBA.

Many of those players have attended college for one season and then bolted to the NBA. Their college team may enjoy great success when the gifted player is there, then stumble the next season when the player has gone to the pros.

The exodus from college to professional ranks is not news. In 2007, for instance, 38 underclassmen declared themselves eligible for an NBA draft that would feature only 60 total picks. Of the 38, six failed to be drafted. Of the 32 drafted, two never played a single game in the NBA.

“I don’t want to prohibit somebody from going to make a living when they want, so I’m not sure what the correct answer is there,” Maddux said. “But I can say that I believe both the NBA and college basketball are watered down because of the early entry rules. …

“You’re losing your top-tier players at an earlier and earlier rate, so there’s no fan loyalty, there’s no build of the legacy and there’s no successes. There’s quick turnover. I just think it’s unhealthy.”

Brian “Penny” Collins, who played on the first Belmont University team to reach the NCAA Tournament, in 2006, pointed out that at least college hoops fans get to see more good young players, even if only for one season.

“One of the best things about college basketball right now is that there are so many talented young guys in the game — guys like Austin Rivers from Duke, and Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist from Kentucky,” said Collins, an assistant coach under Thompson at Cumberland. “It’s fun to watch young guys like that come in and fit together so quickly and grow up so quickly. I think it’s pretty impressive.”

Collins argues that the “one-and-done” rule might have inadvertently created more balance in the college game.

Specifically, some traditional powerhouses such as Kentucky have chosen to gamble on players who will stay at school for just a year, figuring their talent more than makes up for a lack of long-term chemistry. Yet, many other schools recruit and rely on players who can gradually improve and build as a team over time.

“The mid-major programs out there are starting to catch up to high-major programs because the guys in the mid-major programs are staying three to four years,” Collins said. “That’s why you see teams like Butler getting to the championship game with a team that has a lot of juniors and seniors. … They’re more mature, more ready to play and they have more experience.”

Turning point

Some cracks are starting to show in college basketball’s popularity. However, it is difficult to say ratings and attendance declines can be blamed on dissatisfaction with the product on the court. Media overload has similarly affected other sports.

Last year’s NCAA Tournament was the most viewed since 2005, but only four years ago the NCAA recorded its least-watched tournament. And only three years ago the championship game — North Carolina versus Michigan State — produced an all-time low in viewers.

Total attendance at NCAA Tournament games last year was at a five-year low, according to USA TODAY, which also reported that average crowds at Division I regular season games have dipped for each of the past four years.

The collective average in the big-name conferences — ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC — is down almost 6 percent in four years, USA TODAY said.

But there are those who, like Collins, insist the game has never been better.

“There are a lot of questions being asked these days about college football, but basketball is going just about as good as it can go right now,” he said.

“The best thing about college basketball is March Madness and all the excitement, seeing what teams will get seeded where and who will upset who. I don’t want to see that change at all.”

Arguments over whether college basketball on the court is better or worse than in previous generations are sure to continue, even as fans fill out their NCAA brackets and figure out how to skip work for a few days so they can fully soak in March Madness.

“Overall, I do think the game’s getting better,” Thompson said. “But I just think the kids need to know how to slow down and to understand the game a lot more, and not to worry about the home-run play all the time.”

Booker, who in his job as a television analyst sees a wide array of games every season, can’t agree with Thompson’s assessment.

“I’d have to say I think the game is worse these days, primarily because of the talent drain and because of guys jumping to the NBA so quickly,” Booker said. “If players were staying around and developing in college the way they were prior to really the late ’90s, I think the college game would be better than it was back then.

“If they could find some way to have the guys stay in school longer, I think that would help the game immensely.”